Friday, 22 June 2012

Today's big news is that Arsenal are set to treble the wages of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, a year after signing him. The Ox's £15k weekly wage is set to rise to £45k after an impressive first season making 26 appearances for the first team, scoring four goals.

You have to ask why Arsenal are prepared to reward the Ox with such a hefty wage increase only a year after bringing him to the club. Yes, he's going to be a huge talent if he works as hard as he has done already, but he's not won anything yet.

The same happened with Jack Wilshere last summer. He was handed a huge new contract after his breakthrough season. Should we reward players on one season's work?

In my opinion yes we should. I'm all for The Ox being paid more if that means he's committing his future to the club for the long term. You would hope that Arsenal are adding a few more years to his deal in return for this wage increase. That has got to be one of the club's primary goals. There is no use the club paying him more if we're not getting anything in return.

This wage increase might also have something to do with him becoming a full England international. It might have been written into his original deal that when he was capped by England his wages at Arsenal would increase. It wouldn't be a surprise if his agent had agreed that.

Arsenal get hammered when the club rewards players who a section of the support doesn't believe earns their money. So the club should be congratulated for tying down the future services of a player of Alex's unquestionable ability.

There is also a boost for Alex off the pitch with news that his family are to travel to Euro 2012 to watch him play after originally deciding to stay at home.

Elsewhere Arsene Wenger has described Olivier Giroud's move to north London as being 90% done, which is nice to hear the manager say.

"Giroud didn't play much (at the Euros so far), but he's going to be an Arsenal player 90 per cent next season.

"I think he has exceptional potential and will integrate very well in our collective and our way of playing.

"He is a real team player and knows how to combine with other players and I'm sure he will do well with us."

It's quite unusual for Wenger to talk about deals before they are actually complete. So he must be very confident we've been able to do a deal with Montpellier and Giroud will be wearing a red and white Arsenal shirt this season.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the Frenchman play. He's hardly had an opportunity to shine at the Euros yet, but maybe we'll get to see him handed some minutes against Spain on Saturday.

Now that Giroud is only 10% away from being a Gunner, hopefully the club will get on with the deal to sign Yann M'Vila. No bid for the Frenchman has been made yet, despite talks taking place between the two clubs.

But you'd have to hope this is an area we'll be turning our attention to next.

Elsewhere the Daily Mirror report that the club have reached an impasse over the future of Robin van Persie.

The Dutchman has refused to sign the deal Arsenal have put on the table and now it appears that it's only a matter of time before he leaves the club, if our asking price is met.

It's not been the easiest of 48 hours for Robin's agent Kees Vos, who also represents Thomas Vermaelen.

The agent posted the picture of Vermaelen and Barcelona defender Carles Puyol on Twitter and has now come out to deny there is anything sinister about it.